RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's state oil company Petrobras reported on Friday a surge in quarterly net income amid international oil price increase and the depreciation of the Brazilian currency.
The state-controlled oil and gas giant posted a thirty-fold yearly jump in net income from 316 million reals (85.3 million U.S. dollars) in the second quarter (Q2) of 2017 to 10 billion reals (2.7 billion dollars) in Q2 of 2018, which is the highest since 2011.
Adjusted EBITDA, which is earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, was 30 billion reals (8.1 billion dollars) in Q2 of 2018, up 16.7 percent from Q1 of 2018 and 57.9 percent from Q2 of 2017.
With lower general and administrative expenses and equipment idleness expenses, the operating income increased by 18 percent compared with that in the first half of 2017, totaling 34.5 billion reals (9.3 billion dollars).
"The performance of the company's operations maintained a positive trend," Petrobras said.
The operating income, in addition to 5 billion dollars of inflows from disinvestments, helped the world's most indebted oil company reduce its net debt, which fell 13 percent compared with December 2017 and totaled 73.6 billion reals (19.9 billion dollars) by the end of June.
Petrobras also said that it will anticipate payment to shareholders in the form of interest on capital in the amount of 0.05 real per share for both classes of shares.
The payment, in the total amount of 652.2 million (176.2 million dollars), is scheduled to occur on Aug. 23.
